Real Estate Rehab Specialists

Flipping Affordable Housing

The more I travel around the US and Canada, the more I see a huge need for affordable housing. Many larger markets, such as New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Toronto, have a large gap in this area.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Orange County FL has an affordable housing initiative to examine ways to offer more properties in this area. Although small in scale, we are going to do my part and I encourage others in the industry to do the same.

What can people in our industry do? Work on properties in areas that offer price points below $150,000 ARV. I keep hearing from others in the industry that properties are getting scarce and there is much competition. Although that is true in Central Florida for sure, there are still many run-down foreclosures coming to market that would offer an affordable option to many families wanting to purchase a home of their own.

They may not offer the big payouts that many flippers are looking for, but if you’re in this industry for the long-haul, then you have a community responsibility to help others. You’d be surprised how appreciative neighbors are when they see you are fixing a run-down house that is not only an eye-sore, but also dangerous and an attraction to unwanted crime and vandalism.

If you make it clear that your purpose is to provide affordable housing, then you can get around the negativity some have to house flippers being only profiteers.

Hopefully, in the near future, counties and municipalities will catch on that our industry is part of the solution and not just the large scale builders.

I invite Florida Governor Rick Scott, Orange County FL Mayor Teresa Jacobs and other municipal leaders to work with our industry to assist. After all, Florida has some of the largest “flip” markets in the US with *several FL cities having over 5% of total sales being flip homes.